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The Role of NGOs & Non-Profits in CSR

by Bahar Gidwani

This post is the latest in Crowds of Ratings, a Triple Pundit guest series about the CSR ratings field.

There are more than 1.5 million US organizations—and many more overseas—that have put addressing a social issue or need above the goal of making money. More than 2.3 million people work (again, the US figure) in these “not for profit” (NFP) organizations. Hundreds of thousands more work for NGOs (non-governmental organizations) such as universities and hospitals.

These dedicated altruists help the poor and sick, lobby for legislation, protest, persuade, and discuss important social issues. They also contribute a ton of useful information on corporate social responsibility (CSR). NFP groups have the patience and enthusiasm necessary to track a company’s behavior over a long period of time, make lists of companies who do and do not support their cause, and mount public campaigns aimed at changing both consumer perception of a company’s brand and company management and employee awareness of how their company is behaving.

We have found these sources most useful for understanding specific, controversial issues (what we call “special issues”). For instance, should companies test products on animals? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (better known as PETA) feel they generally should not. They maintain a list on their Web site of companies who do animal testing and encourage others to refer to this data.

Many NFPs believe they can most effectively change corporate behavior via private interactions. Corporations sponsor a particular NFP program, adjust to a request from an NFP to change a policy, or respond directly to a letter or position. For instance, The Nature Conservancy does not share its corporate discussions with outsiders like us.

Bahar Gidwani is Cofounder and CEO of CSRHUB. He was the CEO of New York-based Index Stock Imagery, Inc, from 1991 through its sale in 2006. He has built and run large technology-based businesses, and has experience building a multi-million visitor Web site. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey. Bahar has consulted to companies including Citibank, Banco Portuguese do Atlantico, Crane Co., Sperry, GE, General Dynamics, Computer Associates, Oracle, Microsoft, Computer Sciences, EDS, Cerner, and Acxiom. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Bahar is based in New York City.

CSRHUB is a corporate social responsibility ratings tool that allows managers, researchers, consultants, academics and individual activists to track the CSR performance of major companies. We aggregate data from more than 90 sources to provide our users with a comprehensive source of CSR information about 5000+ publicly traded companies in 62 countries. Browse our ratings at www.csrhub.com.